Magic in theory and practice

ANY required Change may beeffected by the application of the proper kind and degree of force in theproper manner through the proper medium to the proper object.

(Illustration: I wish toprepare an ounce of Chloride of Gold. I must take the right kind of acid,nitro-hydrochloric and no other, in sufficient quantity and of adequatestrength, and place it, in a vessel which will not break, leak, or corrode, insuch a manner as will not produce undesirable results, with the necessaryquantity of Gold: and so forth. Every Change has its own conditions.  In the present state of ourknowledge and power some changes are not possible in practice; we cannot causeeclipses, for instance, or transform lead into tin, or create men frommushrooms. But it is theoretically possible to cause in any object any changeof which that object is capable by nature; and the conditions are covered bythe above postulate.)

"THEOREMS."

(1) Every intentional actis a Magical Act.

(1)任何刻意的行为都是一个魔法行为。

<> (Illustration: See "Definition" above.) {XIII}

(2) Every successful act has conformed to the postulate.

(3) Every failure proves that one or more requirements of thepostulate have not been fulfilled.

(Illustrations: There may be failure to understand the case; as whena doctor makes a wrong diagnosis, and his treatment injures his patient. Theremay be failure to apply the right kind of force, as when a rustic tries to blowout an electric light. There may be failure to apply the right degree of force,as when a wrestler has his hold broken. There may be failure to apply the forcein the right manner, as when one presents a cheque at the wrong window of theBank. There may be failure to employ the correct medium, as when Leonardo da Vincifound his masterpiece fade away. The force may be applied to an unsuitableobject, as when one tries to crack a stone, thinking it a nut.)

(4) The first requisitefor causing any change is through qualitative and quantitative understanding ofthe conditions.

(4) 要引起改变，首先你需要对于改变的条件和状况的质量和数量的全然了解。

(Illustration: The most common cause of failure in life is ignoranceof one's own True Will, or of the means by which to fulfil that Will. A man mayfancy himself a painter, and waste his life trying to become one; or he may bereally a painter, and yet fail to understand and to measure the difficultiespeculiar to that career.)

(5) The second requisiteof causing any change is the practical ability to set in right motion thenecessary forces.

(Illustration: A banker mayhave a perfect grasp of a given situation, yet lack the quality of decision, orthe assets, necessary to take advantage of it.)

(6) "Every man andevery woman is a star." That is to say, everyhuman being is intrinsically an independent individual with his own propercharacter and proper motion.

(7) Every man and everywoman has a course, depending partly on the self, and partly on the environmentwhich is natural and necessary for each. Anyone whois forced from his own course, either through not understanding himself, orthrough external opposition, comes into conflict with the order of theUniverse, and suffers accordingly.

{XIV} (Illustration: A man may think it his duty to act in a certainway, through having made a fancy picture of himself, instead of investigatinghis actual nature. For example, a woman may make herself miserable for life bythinking that she prefers love to social consideration, or "viceversa". One woman may stay with an unsympathetic husband when she wouldreally be happy in an attic with a lover, while another may fool herself into aromantic elopement when her only true pleasures are those of presiding atfashionable functions. Again, a boy's instinct may tell him to go to sea, whilehis parents insists on his becoming a doctor. In such a case, he will be bothunsuccessful and unhappy in medicine.)

(8) A Man whose consciouswill is at odds with his True Will is wasting his strength. He cannot hope toinfluence his environment efficiently.

(8) 一个自我意识与真正意愿相矛盾的人是在浪费他的能量。他不能有效的影响他周围的环境。

(Illustration: When Civil War rages in a nation, it is in nocondition to undertake the invasion of other countries. A man with canceremploys his nourishment alike to his own use and to that of the enemy which ispart of himself. He soon fails to resist the pressure of his environment. Inpractical life, a man who is doing what his conscience tells him to be wrongwill do it very clumsily. At first!)

(9) A man who is doingthis True Will has the inertia of the Universe to assist him.

(9)执行自己真正意愿的人能得到宇宙的帮助。

(Illustration: The first principle of success in evolution is thatthe individual should be true to his own nature, and at the same time adapthimself to his environment.)

(10) Nature is acontinuous phenomenon, though we do not know in all cases how things areconnected.

(10) 尽管我们不知道万事万物是怎样联系的，自然界是一系列连续的现象。

(Illustration: Human consciousness depends on the properties ofprotoplasm, the existence of which depends on innumerable physical conditionspeculiar to this planet;and this planet is determined by the mechanical balanceof the whole universe of matter. We may then say that our consciousness iscausally connected with the remotest galaxies; yet we do not know even how itarises from --- or with --- the molecular changes in the brain.)

(11) Science enables us totake advantage of the continuity of Nature by the empirical application ofcertain {XV} principles whose interplay involves different orders of ideaconnected with each other in a way beyond our present comprehension.

(Illustration: We are able to light cities by rule-of- thumbmethods. We do not know what consciousness is, or how it is connected withmuscular action; what electricity is or how it is connected with the machinesthat generate it; and our methods depend on calculations involving mathematicalideas which have no correspondence in the Universe as we know it.<>)

(12) Man is ignorant ofthe nature of his own being and powers. Even his idea of his limitations isbased on experience of the past, and every step in his progress extends hisempire. There is therefore no reason to assign theoretical limits<> towhat he may be, or to what he may do.

(12) 人类忽略自我的本性和力量。尽管人类在思想上的限制是基于他们对于过去的经验，并且，在人类面对未知前进的每一步都将超越他们的领域。因此，没有理由在他可能是或者他可能做什么上面去确定理论上的限制。

(Illustration: A generation ago it was supposed theoreticallyimpossible that man should ever know the chemical composition of the fixedstars. It is known that our senses are adapted to receive only an infinitesimalfraction of the possible rates of vibration. Modern instruments have enabled usto detect some of these suprasensibles by indirect methods, and even to usetheir peculiar qualities in the service of man, as in the case of the rays ofHertz and Rontgen. As Tyndall said, man might at any moment learn to perceiveand utilise vibrations of all conceivable and inconceivable kinds. The questionof Magick is a question of discovering and employing hitherto unknown forces innature. We know that they exist, and we cannot doubt the possibility of mentalor physical instruments capable of bringing us into relation with them.)

(13) Every man is more orless aware that his individuality comprises several orders of existence, evenwhen he maintains that his subtler principles are merely symptomatic of thechanges in his gross vehicle. A similar order may be assumed to extendthroughout nature.

(13) 每个人或多或少能够意识到，他的个体性包含了多个存在的命令秩序（多股力量的影响），即使他坚持他微妙的行为原则仅仅是他大体改变的症状而已。

(Illustration: One does not confuse the pain of toothache with {XVI}the decay which causes it. Inanimate objects are sensitive to certain physicalforces, such as electrical and thermal conductivity; but neither in us nor inthem --- so far as we know --- is there any direct conscious perception ofthese forces. Imperceptible influences are therefore associated with allmaterial phenomena; and there is no reason why we should not work upon matterthrough those subtle energies as we do through their material bases. In fact,we use magnetic force to move iron, and solar radiation to reproduce images.)

(14) Man is capable ofbeing, and using, anything which he perceives, for everything that he perceivesis in acertain sense a part of his being. He may thus subjugate the wholeUniverse of which he is conscious to his individual Will.

(Illustration: Man has used the idea of God to dictate his personalconduct, to obtain power over his fellow, to excuse his crimes, and forinnumerable other purposes, including that of realizing himself as God. He hasused the irrational and unreal conceptions of mathematics to help him in theconstruction of mechanical devices. He has used his moral force to influencethe actions even of wild animals. He has employed poetic genius for politicalpurposes.)

(15) Every force in theUniverse is capable of being transformed into any other kind of force by usingsuitable means. There is thus an inexhaustible supply of any particular kind offorce that we may need.

(15)宇宙中的每股力量都能够通过恰当的方法转换成任何其它类型的力量。

(Illustration: Heat may be transformed into light and power by usingit to drive dynamos. The vibrations of the air may be used to kill men by soordering them in speech as to inflame war-like passions. The hallucinations connectedwith the mysterious energies of sex result in the perpetuation of the species.)

(16) The application ofany given force affects all the orders of being which exist in the object towhich it is applied, whichever of those orders is directly affected.

(16)任何给定力量的应用影响着所有存在于力量应用对象内部存在的存在秩序，无论那些秩序是否是被直接影响。

(Illustration: If I strike a man with a dagger, his consciousness,not his body only, is affected by my act; although the dagger, as such, has nodirect relation therewith. Similarly, the power of {XVII} my thought may sowork on the mind of another person as to produce far- reaching physical changesin him, or in others through him.)

(17) A man may learn touse any force so as to serve any purpose, by taking advantage of the abovetheorems.

(Illustration: A man may use a razor to make himself vigilant overhis speech, but using it to cut himself whenever he unguardedly utters a chosenword. He may serve the same purpose by resolving that every incident of hislife shall remind him of a particular thing, making every impression thestarting point of a connected series of thoughts ending in that thing. He mightalso devote his whole energies to some one particular object, by resolving todo nothing at variance therewith, and to make every act turn to the advantageof that object.)

(18) He may attract tohimself any force of the Universe by making himself a fit receptacle for it,establishing a connection with it, and arranging conditions so that its naturecompels it to flow toward him.

(18)通过使自己成为一个合适的容器，一个人能够把宇宙中任何力量吸引到自己这里来，并同这种力量建立一种联系。

(Illustration: If I want pure water to drink, I dig a well in aplace where there is underground water; I prevent it from leaking away; and Iarrange to take advantage of water's accordance with the laws of Hydrostaticsto fill it.)

(19) Man's sense ofhimself as separate from, and oppose to, the Universe is a bar to hisconducting its currents. It insulates him.

(Illustration: A popular leader is most successful when he forgetshimself, and remembers only "The Cause". Self- seeking engendersjealousies and schism. When the organs of the body assert their presenceotherwise than by silent satisfaction, it is a sign that they are diseased. Thesingle exception is the organ of reproduction. Yet even in this case itsself-assertion bears witness to its dissatisfaction with itself, since itcannot fulfil its function until completed by its counterpart in anotherorganism.

(20) Man can only attractand employ the forces for which he is really fitted.

(20)一个人只能吸引和使用那些和他真正想匹配的力量。

(Illustration: You cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. A{XVIII} true man of science learns from every phenomenon. But Nature is dumb tothe hypocrite; for in her there is nothing false.<>)

(21) There is no limit tothe extent of the relations of any man with the Universe in essence; for assoon as man makes himself one with any idea the means of measurement cease toexist. But his power to utilize that force is limited by his mental power andcapacity, and by the circumstances of his human environment.

(21)在人类和宇宙之间实质性关系联系的范围上是没有限制的。但是人类使用这些力量的能力是受他的精神力量和能力，受他的人类环境状况所限制的。

(Illustration: When a man falls in love, the whole world becomes, tohim, nothing but love boundless and immanent; but his mystical state is notcontagious; his fellow-men are either amused or annoyed. He can only extend toothers the effect which his love has had upon himself by means of his mentaland physical qualities. Thus, Catullus, Dante and Swinburn made their love amighty mover of mankind by virtue of their power to put their thoughts on thesubject in musical and eloquent language. Again, Cleopatra and other people inauthority moulded the fortunes of many other people by allowing love toinfluence their political actions. The Magician, however well he succeed inmaking contact with the secret sources of energy in nature, can only use themto the extent permitted by his intellectual and moral qualities. Mohammed'sintercourse with Gabriel was only effective because of his statesmanship,soldiership, and the sublimity of his command of Arabic. Hertz's discovery ofthe rays which we now use for wireless telegraphy was sterile until reflectedthrough the minds and wills of the people who could take his truth, andtransmit it to the world of action by means of mechanical and economic instruments.)

(22) Every individual isessentially sufficient to himself. But he is unsatisfactory to himself until hehas established himself in his right relation with the Universe.

(22)每一个人对自己来说都是足够的。但是，在他和宇宙之间建立正确的联系之前他对自己是不满意的。

(Illustration: A microscope, however perfect, is useless in the{XIX} hands of savages. A poet, however sublime, must impose himself upon hisgeneration if he is to enjoy (and even to understand) himself, as theoreticallyshould be the case.)

(23) Magick is the Scienceof understanding oneself and one's conditions. It is the Art of applying thatunderstanding in action.

(23) 魔法是了解自我和自我条件的一门科学。它是一门把这种了解应用于实际行动的艺术。

(Illustration: A golf club is intended to move a special ball in aspecial way in special circumstances. A Niblick should rarely be used on thetee, or a Brassie under the bank of a bunker. But also, the use of any clubdemands skill and experience.)

(24) Every man has anindefeasible right to be what he is.

(24) 每个人都有不可剥夺的做自己的权利。

(Illustration: To insist that any one else shall comply with one'sown standards is to outrage, not only him, but oneself, since both parties areequally born of necessity.)

(25) Every man must doMagick each time that he acts or even thinks, since a thought is an internalact whose influence ultimately affects action, thought it may not do so at thetime.

(Illustration: The least gesture causes a change in a man's own bodyand in the air around him; it disturbs the balance of the entire Universe, andits effects continue eternally throughout all space. Every thought, howeverswiftly suppressed, has its effect on the mind. It stands as one of the causesof every subsequent thought, and tends to influence every subsequent action. Agolfer may lose a few yards on his drive, a few more with his second and third,he may lie on the green six bare inches too far from the hole; but the netresult of these trifling mishaps is the difference of a whole stroke, and soprobably between halving and losing the hole.)

(26) Every man has aright, the right of self- preservation, to fulfil himself to theutmost.<>

(26)每个人都有自我保护和最大程度繁盛自我的权利。

(Illustration: A function imperfectly preformed injures, not {XX}only itself, but everything associated with it. If the heart is afraid to beatfor fear of disturbing the liver, the liver is starved for blood, and avengesitself on the heart by upsetting digestion, which disorders respiration, onwhich cardiac welfare depends.)

(27) Every man should makeMagick the keynote of his life. He should learn its laws and live by them.

(Illustration: The Bankershould discover the real meaning of his existence, the real motive which ledhim to choose that profession. He should understand banking as a necessaryfactor in the economic existence of mankind, instead of as merely a businesswhose objects are independent of the general welfare. He should learn todistinguish false values from real, and to act not on accidental fluctuationsbut on considerations of essential importance. Such a banker will prove himselfsuperior to others; because he will not be an individual limited by transitory things,but a force of Nature, as impersonal, impartial and eternal as gravitation, aspatient and irresistible as the tides. His system will not be subject to panic,any more than the law of Inverse Squares is disturbed by Elections. He will notbe anxious about his affairs because they will not be his; and for that reasonhe will be able to direct them with the calm, clear-headed confidence of anonlooker, with intelligence unclouded by self-interest and power unimpaired bypassion.)

(28) Every man has a right tofulfil his own will without being afraid that it may interfere with that of others;for if he is in his proper place, it is the fault of others if they interferewith him.

(28)每个人都有繁盛自我真正意愿而不用担心会影响他人的权利；因为他在繁盛自我的过程中他处于他自己恰当的位置，而影响他繁盛自我的那些人是在犯错误。

(Illustration: If a man like Napoleon were actually appointed bydestiny to control Europe, he should not beblamed for exercising his rights. To oppose him would be an error. Any one so doingwould have made a mistake as to his own destiny, except in so far as it mightbe necessary for him to learn to lessons of defeat. The sun moves in spacewithout interference. The order of Nature provides an orbit for each star. Aclash proves that one or the other has strayed from his course. But as to eachman that keeps his true course, the more firmly he acts, the less likely areothers to get in his way. His example will help {XXI} them to find their ownpaths and pursue them. Every man that becomes a Magician helps others to dolikewise. The more firmly and surely men move, and the more such action isaccepted as the standard of morality, the less will conflict and confusionhamper humanity.)